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Tiivistelmä

Nepal is a developing country with the resources and prospects to flourish in the agricultural sector. Agriculture contributes the largest share of the GDP in Nepal. The effective production and marketing of agricultural products in the various regions of Nepal could bring significant changes to the economic development of the nation. To develop the agricultural sector, many foreign nations and their development agencies are assisting Nepal in various development programs. One of them is the Rural Village Water Resource Management Project (RVWRMP) in the Far Western Region. The project is jointly supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland and the Government of Nepal. The project primarily focuses on the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sectors, followed by Livelihood and Microfinance.

This study was carried out with the motive of promoting the rural livelihood of agriculture cooperatives and local farmers through the marketing of agricultural products. For this study, three cooperatives in three different Village Development Committees of the Far Western Region of Nepal were selected. The cooperatives were formed by RVWRMP in Phase I. The second phase of the project provides financial and technical support to these cooperatives. This research uses a qualitative method of data collection. The results and outcomes presented in the study are based on the information obtained from the collected data.

After analyzing the prospects and problems in these cooperatives, the author proposed an implementation plan and agricultural marketing model for cooperatives to ensure their selfsustainability in the future. Furthermore, the author assumed that this implementation plan could develop the value chain among local farmers, communities and cooperatives through the medium of agricultural product marketing.